dont be a bummer

On Saturday I attended the 350.org International Day of Climate Action in Kelowna. 350.org’s mission is “. . . to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet”. It was not a bad turnout for Kelowna. 100 people showed up from a city of 120,000. I said it wasn’t bad for Kelowna. And I suppose thats why 350.org is doing what it is doing – to change that sense of apathy.

Here’s a pic of our group. You can see me in the red helmet near the 350 banner.

After a quite and uneventful cycle around downtown Kelowna, we headed back to the Rotary Center for the Arts where Angela Reid gave a presentation on the current state for climate change info. For anyone who has studied the climate change debate, it was all fairly high level stuff, but a great presentation all the same. After that ensued a Q&A session that was well engaged. There were a lot of great points about how to reduce your carbon footprint and how to consume less. Really, when you think about it, these are things we should be doing whether there are climate change issues or not. Why should we waste our resources just because we can? Why should we pay for more electricity, water, and other resources than we really need just because we can? It is kind of arrogant, and not that smart, when you think about it.

There were, of course, the climate change deniers. On fellow brought up the issue regarding how CO2 levels have been much higher than they are now at other points in the planets history, while the other fellow mentioned the scientists who resigned from the IPCC. It seemed these guys just wanted to upset the apple cart and prove everyone wrong. I am not against debating some of the anomolies around climate change, but I think saying the whole concept is incorrect and an egregous misrepresentation just because you have an issue with some of the points is a bit strong. I am not going to address these points at the moment, but rather what was said at the end of the session. A young man sumed things up with words to this effect: “If you want to come to events like this and be a bummer, then just stay home. The people here just want to make the world a better place and to make a differnce. If you don’t want to be a part of that, then just stay home”. Scientific debate aside, it is hard to ague with his sentiment. I applauded loudly.